Mikama - November 1, 2013

Wagdy Sawahel in AllAfrica
Two projects in Benin and Madagascar that have helped train engineers and researchers in entrepreneurship and innovation skills are some of the most recent ones among more than 1,000 initiatives run by a Belgian NGO that aims to build entrepreneurial expertise through North-South exchanges.The projects used web conferencing and distance learning to train Africans.
"African people are very good at setting up small businesses, but they have problems in converting their ideas to business solutions and big Western-style companies due to a lack of money," he says.
For the project in Madagascar, 50 engineers who work at companies that belong to national IT association Goticom or are members of the chamber of commerce of the nation's capital Antananarivo were trained in project management and applying best practice, De Bruyn says.

Chantelle Kotze in Mining Weekly
Infrastructure and land logistics, mining and port scoping study results released by ASX-listed coal exploration company Lemur Resources for its flagship Imaloto thermal coal project, in south-western Madagascar, indicate the positive potential of the project and a pathway for its proposed development.
The three scoping studies were undertaken to establish whether an economically viable mining operation, producing up to one-million tons a year of saleable export product and 400 000 t/y of saleable domestic product, could be established. Preliminary estimates for the project envision a 19-year life-of-mine (LoM) for a total run-of-mine (RoM) of 21-million tons of coal.

The development of the project, which consists of one mining permit and four exploration permits covering a total area of 81.25 km2, is two-phased. The scoping study envisions Phase 1 of the project including an initial truck-and-shovel opencast contract mining operation ... Phase 1 is estimated at $12-million, with an LoM of nine years. Phase 2, with a ten-year LoM, entails the establishment of an underground mining operation on a contract-mining basis. (...) Major components of the underground mine infrastructure, such as electrical power reticulation, water reticulation (including pumping), communications and the transport of staff and material, as well as conveying the product to surface, have all been considered as part of the scoping study.

Pura Vida Energy NL in Rigzone
African-focused oil explorer Pura Vida Energy NL (Pura Vida or the Company) announced Friday that it has entered into an agreement with Sterling Energy (UK) Limited (Sterling), a 100 percent owned subsidiary of Sterling Energy Plc, to farmin to the Ambilobe block, offshore Madagascar.
Exploration onshore in Madagascar has already resulted in the discovery of numerous heavy oil fields proving the existence of an abundant oil source. Pura Vida believes that the large onshore discovered oil play extends into the Ambilobe block due to the oil seeps onshore on the eastern block boundary. Due to the depth of the reservoirs in the offshore area, Pura Vida’s view is that any oil found in the area of the Ambilobe permit will be a light grade oil different to that found onshore. ExxonMobil is Operator of the Ampasindava block located adjacent, immediately to the south of Ambilobe where  ExxonMobil is planning a deep exploration well targeting the Jurassic. If the joint venture elects to enter Phase 3 of the exploration period, an exploration well will be required to be drilled by September 2016. Madagascar had its first oil discovery in 1842 when heavy oil was found at shallow levels in the western part of the country. Due to the nature of the oil it has remained undeveloped until recent times. The scale of the in place resources are greater than two billion barrels of oil and could be developed in a similar manner to the Athabasca Oil Sands in Canada.